Steve Bruce has always said teams are only as good as their strikers and Hull City’s manager emphasised the point by breaking his club’s transfer record to sign the Uruguay forward Abel Hernández from Serie A’s Palermo.

The 24-year-old cost Hull around £10m on a fruitful day for Bruce, who closed a deal for Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa at around 1am having earlier brought in Mohamed Diamé, the West Ham midfielder, for £3.5m and Gastón Ramírez on loan from Southampton.

Hull were granted an extension to conclude the Ben Arfa transfer. “Whatever’s happened at Newcastle has happened,” Bruce told BBC 5 Live. “He wants to come here and play and get his career kickstarted again. Hopefully I can bring the best out of him. Hatem is a superb addition to the squad, and brings a lot of attacking flare.”

The manager has been desperate to augment his attack since losing Shane Long to Southampton this summer. Hernández promises to fill the gap Hull’s manager had originally hoped would by now be occupied by Jordan Rhodes. Blackburn Rovers refused to sell their star striker, though, and Bruce’s thoughts duly turned to Hernández – and quite a statement acquisition.

“Abel is a fantastic signing and highlights just how far this club has come in a short space of time,” he said after the Uruguayan agreed a three-year deal with an option for a further 12-month extension. “Abel’s extremely talented and, like myself, our supporters cannot wait to see him in action.”

He comes with an impressive goals-to- games ratio; Hernández has scored seven times in his 14 senior appearances for Uruguay and registered 31 goals in 111 first-team appearances in five years at Palermo. Fourteen of them came last season as the Italian side won the Serie B title.

Diamé, the 27-year-old Senegal midfielder, will not be playing alongside George Boyd at the KC Stadium after the former Peterborough winger agreed a £3m move to newly promoted Burnley, who also took the versatile young midfielder or defender Nathaniel Chalaboah on loan from Chelsea until January.

“At my age I need first-team football and that wasn’t going to happen at Hull,” said the 28-year-old Boyd, who parted with Bruce on excellent terms, with the latter having said he “wished all footballers were as easy to manage as George”.

“I’m delighted to welcome Mohamed to the club,” Bruce said. “His experience, both at international level and in the Premier League will be invaluable for us as we look to cement our place in the top flight.”

Bruce added a second Uruguay international ahead of the transfer deadline, with the arrival of Ramírez on loan until the end of the campaign. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder cost Southampton £12m two years ago but never quite became a regular starter and has appeared only twice from the bench since Ronald Koeman’s arrival as manager.

He has made 50 appearances for Southampton, scoring eight times. Bruce said: “Gastón significantly improves our attacking options and I’m delighted to welcome him to the club. He is yet another quality addition as we look to build on what we achieved last season.”Up the A19 at Middlesbrough, Aitor Karanka has reinforced his hitherto unlikely Championship promotion challenge with two new deadline signings. Jelle Vossen, the 25-year-old Belgium striker, has joined from Genk on a season-long loan and Yanic Wildschut, 22, a former Holland Under-21 winger, has relocated to the Riverside from Heerenveen, costing Boro in the region of £600,000.

Vossen, with 12 senior caps, has scored 105 goals in 244 games for Genk and the loan includes an option to make the deal permanent next summer.

The moves follow Sunday’s signing of the Republic of Ireland youth defender Brian Lenihan joining from Cork City.His new team-mate David Meyler said: “He’s a fantastic young talent and hopefully he’ll kick on and do really well.”